The Cons of Nuclear Reactors

1
The Cons of Nuclear Reactors

• By Michelle Trojanowsky

2
Threats Posed by Nuclear Reactors

1. Terrorism
2. The Production of Radioactive Materials
3. Nuclear Proliferation
4. Nuclear Accidents
5. High Costs

3
Terrorism

• Cooling pools
• 10 to 30 times more radioactive material than in
  reactor core
• Transportation
• More than 80,000 tons of highly radioactive waste
  waiting for transportation
• Traveling through 39 states on public roads and
  railway lines for next 25 years

4
Production of Radioactive Materials

• Unregulated Isotopes
• Krypton, Xenon, Argon
• Inhaled
• emit gamma radiation
• Cause genetic disease
• Tritium
• Gas that combines w/ O, forms radioactive water
• mutagenic

5
Four of the most dangerous elements made in
nuclear power plants

• 1. Iodine 131
• Thyroid cancer
• 2. Strontium 90
• Breast cancer, bone cancer, leukemia
• 3. Cesium 137
• Sarcoma (muscle cancer)
• 4. Plutonium 239
• One-millionth gram is carcinogenic
• More than 200 kg made annually in EACH power
  plant
• Liver cancer, bone cancer, blood malignancies,
  lung cancer, congenital deformities, testicular
  cancer, genetic diseases
• Lasts for 500,000 years
• Fuel for nuclear weapons

6
Storage?

• Waste remains toxic for thousands of years
• Cannot detoxify waste
• No long-term repository in US after 20 years of
  trying
• Blocked by politics

7
Nuclear Proliferation

• Plutonium
• Fuel for nuclear weapons
• Only 5 kg to make a bomb
• Each reactor makes over 200 kg every year
• Any country with a nuclear power plant 40 bombs
  per year

8
Nuclear Accidents

• Numerous accidents in US alone
• Nearly 200 documented since 1986
• 3 Mile Island
• Chernobyl

9
Example Accidents

• August 21, 1945 Los Alamos National Laboratory,
  Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
• Accidental criticality. 1 Death
• October 812, 1957 Sellafield, Cumbria, UK
  Windscale Fire.
• Reactor core fire
• December 30, 1958 Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
• Accidental criticality. 1 Death
• October 1988 Rocky Flats in Colorado
• safety violations
• April 6, 1993 - Tomsk-7 Siberian Chemical
  Enterprise - Tomsk, Russia
• Explosive mechanical failure in a reaction vessel
  
• June, 1999 - Shika Nuclear Power Plant- Ishikawa
  Prefecture, Japan
• Control rod malfunction
• September 30, 1999 Reprocessing Facility in
  Tokaimura Japan
• Accidental Criticality. 2 Deaths
• April 10, 2003 - Paks Nuclear Reactor -Paks,
  Hungary
• Fuel damaged
• April 19, 2005 Thorp Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing
  Plant- Sellafield, UK
• Nuclear material leak
• November 2005 Excelons Braidwood Station- -
  Braidwood, Illinois

10
Three Mile Island

• March 28, 1979
• Partial core meltdown
• Most significant accident in history of American
  commercial nuclear power generating industry
• Resulted in release of significant amount of
  radioactivity to environment
• 25,000 people lived within 5 miles of the site

11
Chernobyl

• Highly radioactive fallout sent over western
  Russia, Europe and eastern North America
• 30-40 times more fallout than Hiroshima
• 336,000 people evacuated
• 60 of radioactive fallout landed in Belarus
• More than 2000 children had thyroids removed for
  thyroid cancer
• Could have resulted in additional 200,000 deaths
  between 1990 and 2004

12
High Costs

• Nuclear power plants cost just as much as coal
  plants
• Difference between cost estimates and final costs
  for 75 reactors
• original estimate 45billion
• final cost 145billion
• Watts Bar reactor
• Industry cannot cover own costs
• Uranium enrichment subsidized
• Industry pays only 2 of liability costs
• Decommissioning all existing US nuclear reactors
  33 billion
• Storage of radioactive waste

13
Summary

• Terrorism and nuclear accidents would result in
  catastrophic releases of lethal radioactive
  material on American soil
• Political barriers to construction of nuclear
  facilities- localized effects of
  accidents/terrorism
• Absence of long-term storage facilities to hold
  dangerous waste products
• High costs make nuclear power economically
  inefficient
• Waste from nuclear reactors facilitates nuclear
  proliferation, threatening global security